It’s January and many of us have resolved to lose weight by eating healthier and hitting the gym. But like our bodies, our houses also accumulate excess baggage. Why not put your house on a diet? Here in Chicago, we are knee deep in snow and frigid temperatures. I could have hibernated on the sofa with Nine Perfect Strangers (Liane Moriarty’s new book) but instead I decided to dig into my cabinets and closets in order to help my house lose that spare tire of obsolete gadgets, outdated decor and clothing, and any other “stuff” that hasn’t been used in years.
When I first retired back in 2016, one of the first books I read was Marie Kondo’s “the life-changing magic of tidying up”. Like many other retirees, closet cleaning and just plain “going through the house and getting rid of stuff” was on the to-do list. In Marie Kondo’s book, she talks about only keeping items that “spark joy”. To avoid this concept being a trap for you, translate this into the motto, “use it, love it, or lose it,”. (Just in case you’re one of those people that finds joy in keeping everything.) In other words, if you’re not using the item, and you don’t absolutely love or cherish it (like your mom’s favorite tea cup)❤️then get rid of it. Sometimes we struggle at feeling wasteful by throwing away our “treasures”. Everything we get rid of will go into one of three piles: charity, recycle, and garbage. You will be surprised at how much of your unwanted house weight will go to charity or can be recycled, which is not wasteful at all.
The KonMari method says to tidy by category, not location. Before I purge and organize clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous, and sentimental items (in that order) I start with the kitchen. It’s my one exception to tidying by location. The kitchen tends to be one of the largest rooms in the house with the most hiding spaces, not to mention the center of our daily lives. We tend to dump everything from mail to chargers for electronics here. The declutter rule of “obtain something, get rid of something” certainly applies to the kitchen. How many saucepans do we really need? Do we really need ALL of those plastic containers? After pulling EVERYTHING out of the cabinets and grouping like objects, you will realize you don’t need 3 funnels that all do the same job or the old set of knives AND the new set of knives all taking up space. There will be someone very happy to have your old set of knives or one of your funnels - maybe a young couple just starting out saving for a house or a college kid just getting their first apartment. Put those items in the pile for charity. One thing the KonMari method focuses on is visualization. After visualizing my food pantry with well-organized food storage containers, I did a complete makeover using DuraHome Airtight Food Storage containers (acrylic and BPA free) and absolutely love them!
Clutter creates noise in our homes and increases stress levels, even if that clutter is hidden away in closets, cabinets and drawers. At some point you’re going to open that closet, cabinet, or drawer and be confronted with the clutter. My mother was very anti-clutter. One of her favorite sayings was, “a place for everything and everything in it’s place”. She never had to declutter because she never allowed things to accumulate. Everyone’s tolerance to clutter is different. We could argue that clutter indicates some sort of psychological symbolism, but for most of us, it happens because we just move too fast to take the time to organize or we lack the ability to make the decision to just “close our eyes and throw it out” as my mother would say.
Putting your house on a diet of decluttering and organizing will most likely be triggered by a major life event like a move, retirement, or redecorating/remodeling. Sometimes we are inspired by watching one of our favorite shows on DIY or HGTV. Those of us who live in the Midwest, a snow/cold day is a great time to start that diet for our homes and accomplish something while we are stuck inside! Don’t wait for that major life event or a snow day - visualize resetting your life in a stress-free home. Visualize your destination and what you want your home to look like.
